A place to find the most amazing Latin American folk tales

Bolivian Folktales

Lake Titicaca is the larger lake in South America and is the highest navigable lake in the world. The Lake is 122 miles long with an average width of 35 miles. For the Incas is the beginning of civilization and the origin of the Inca Empire.

Lake Titicaca

The legend says that the god of the mountains Apus had put people in a valley, where they can have a healthy live under his protection. The people were happy and things would stay that way forever as long as they obeyed Apus. He only had one prohibition: that they never escalate the mountain where a sacred fire burned perpetually. The Devil was unhappy and convinced the people at the valley to disobey Apus.

The people at the village started competing among themselves to see who was courageous enough to defy the gods and escalate the forbidden mountain. Unfortunately, Apus found out and exterminated them, and sent pumas to eat them.

Lake Titicaca Bolivian Side

It was devastating for Inti, the sun god to see the destruction of his creatures, he cried and cried for so long that he inundated the valley. Only a couple survived this flood of tears in a reed boat. After the flood passed over, the couple found themselves in the middle of a great lake, which had drowned the pumas sent by the Apus, turning them into stone statues. The couple then decided to call the Lake Titicaca, which in their language means “lake of the stony pumas”.